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Answering the interview
are Rodrigo Ramirez (keys and programming), Mario
Salgado (guitars) and Mario Chacana (voices).
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First of all, can you give us a brief introduction of
Replica?
MC: Replica is basically a response for emotions,
an escape from feelings that can´t be described in any
way but the musical language. There are some bizarre
feelings in the darkest side of humanity that mere words
can´t communicate, but some artistic manifestos (like a
painting or a musical composition) are the right way to
manipulate those moods. Every human in this world has a
demon inside, screaming to reveal the most obscure way
the mind has, so our music and our lyrics, as a complete
work, try to reflect those dark feelings, describing
them or constructing provisional answers. Replica is a
complete experimentation of influences, moods and
visions, and the result of that mixture is the music we
create.
Right now the line up is conformed by Rodrigo Ramirez (Skanner)
in the synths and programming, Mario Salgado in the
guitars, Gonzalo Perez in the keyboards and piano, Jaime
Cabrera in the e-drums and myself in the voices.
How did things get started? And why did you pick this
bandname?
RR: Replica began 2 years ago like a parallel
project to Vigilante which, sadly, we had to leave aside
for a while since back then we were concentrated in
Vigilante. The name Replica is born of the idea of how
humanity has been losing its autonomy and becoming a
copy of a estereotype restored by the consumption
What are your main influences?
MC: There´s a very wide field of influences in
our music and lyrics. There´s a direct inspiration of
sagas like Silent Hill (a very accurate treatment of the
unknown part of humanity) or movies like Blade Runner
and the anime Ghost in the Shell (the loss of
individuality to become part of a bigger entity is a
recurrent theme in our music, specially in the song “Soulteck”).
Also we find inspiration in the literature of Phillip K.
Dick and Stephen King, they know exactly how to canalize
and treat the nightmarish view of the very world we
confront. Musically, the inspiration comes in a very
“heterogenic” way, because I can refer as influences the
work of bands and artists like Emperor, Diary of Dreams,
Paradise Lost, Unhielig, Front Line Assembly, Cradle of
Filth, Depeche Mode, Diorama, Akira Yamaoka, Delerium,
Opeth, Imperative Reaction and NIN. I am naming just a
minor spectrum of the music we always are listening, so
the range of influences that the audience can find in
our music is very wide.
How would you describe your music?
RR: It is very difficult to classify our music, I
think if I had to name it would be “electronic rock”
since we played with our different influences passing
through the darkest techno (Between the scorn) to smooth
melodies (Image of pain) to cold and furious shouts (Soulteck).
Your debut album 'Languages of Decay' will be out
soon. Can you give us some basic info about it already?
RR: Well, our album includes 12 tracks in which
we’ve included an acoustic version of one of our songs.
The album was recorded in our home studio The Vortex
Room and mixed by myself. The process of masterization
took place at 15hz Studios, and it will be distributed
in South America by Twilight Records.
What can we expect of that album?
MC: In the lyrical part, and as I said before,
Replica acts like a compendium of the bizarre plane of
humanity. In the musical part, “Languages of Decay” (as
the title refers) contains dark-mooded songs with very
oppressive ambiances, neurotic fast-paced beats and
rabid liberating accords accompained with hi-tech sounds,
melodic and growling vocals, and very heavy guitars. The
result is a very catchy playlist balanced between the
melodic side of the band to the most aggressive one, so
“Languages of Decay” is also an open invitation for the
people who listen only hard stuff to the others who are
more into the synth-pop and the likes.
Currently you do quite some promotion online. How
important is the internet (and sited like MySpace) for a
band like Replica?
MS: Nowdays internet is the most important media
in the world and we think to take advantage of it. This
is the best way to get people to know us , coz it doesnt
matter where you are from, you can listen to us in sites
like Myspace. Also people who has listened to us can do
mouth-to-mouth promotion and tell their friends to check
out our site. This come handly specially for bands like
ours, which are a far away from the european scene. But
never the less, Replica is by far a live band. You'll
have to wait and see our show !!
The scene in Chile isn't really known all over the
world, although a band like Vigilante (of which' ex
members are in Replica) already managed to get known in
Europe. How is the scene in Chile? Any good audience
over there? Maybe some talented bands we must check out?
MS: The audience in Chile is very poor, no more
than 800 people in a concert ( like when Diary of Dreams
came a few years ago, for instance ), but sometimes you
can gather more people if you have a big fest or a "people's
band" coming like Lacrimosa.
About bands, in Chile there are a few in the electro/ebm/industrial
kind of music, and most of them do music as a hobbie, so
we cant really recomment any chilean band ... but there
is an argentinian band that you should really check out:
Nekrodamus. It's part of Twilight Records as well.
What can a stranger expect when he visits a live show
of Replica?
MS: First of all, and the most important thing I
reckon, is the fact that we play around 90% of all
sounds you will hear in our concert. That's why we have
2 keyboards, guitar and drums !!! we love live bands,
and there arent many nowdays ... most of them press play
in a minidisc and thats about it .... we respect their
music but we want to make a difference, so after our
concert you can say "what a nice performance that was!".
Also you can expect a lot of feeling in our songs and
the way we play it ... as latin americans always do .
What can we expect of your band in the near future?
RR: At the moment Replica is performing live
doing the promotion of the album, so we don´t have more
plans for the time being. As for me I´m in the process
of construction of what will be the new studio of
Replica, so we can concentrate in our next work starting
in March 2008.
The interview ends here, thanks a lot for your time.
If you have something to add, you can do it here.
RR: First of all I’d like to thank you for the
opportunity to show our work, and to thank all the
people who never believed in me, they were my
inspiration
MC: Well, thanks for the interview and a warm
hail to all the readers of Industrialized Metal. I would
like to say them that all the musical frontiers and
barriers must be destroyed and there aren´t horizons in
the universe of music, so the creation is always up to
you. Thanks for supporting Replica and try to confront
the “Languages of Decay”!!. I hope you like it.
MS: I would like to thank you for this interview
and for your concern about Replica. Also I would like to
invite everyone check us out in our website (www.replicasite.net
) and myspace (www.myspace.com/replicasite). We've put a
lot of effort in our music and this band, so we hope
you'll like it as much as we do. Cheers from Replica.
Interview by: Gerardo (September 2007) |
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